The Body Language of Trees: Encyclopedia of Visual Tree Assessment

The Body Language of Trees, produced as one of the Research for Amenity Trees series, was one of Claus Mattheck’s most popular books. Although borrowing part of the title from the earlier edition, and essentially applying the same principles and style as other books by Mattheck, the author sees this as a new work. It updates and revises the earlier book, summarising results from tree research carried out at the Karlsruhe Research Centre (now KIT) over the last 25 years. To paraphrase Claus’s own words, …it aims to promote deeper understanding of the body language of trees. The method of tree inspection described has been verified by computerized methods and field studies. It is used all over the world and is the basis for many court decisions.

The book is over 500 pages long, in full colour throughout with a mixture of photographs and coloured diagrams. Drawings and text are by Claus in co-operation with Klaus Bethge and Karlheinz Weber. This English language version has been translated from the Gerrman by Ralf Friese. One quarter of the book comprises a section on wood decay fungi. An index and bibliography are provided.